In today’s society there is an array of fad diets that “guarantee” results – I believe most of them are full of shit, but there is a new diet which has just hit Australian shores and it’s guaranteed to work, it’s called the ‘Gambino Diet’. The ‘Gambino Diet’ consists of basically eating whatever you want, but you need to attend a sweat and swagger drenched Childish Gambino show, which requires bouncing (not moshing) and huge sing-alongs.
Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) is the ridiculously talented rapper who holds many persona’s, including his music alter ego Childish Gambino and acting alter ego Troy Barnes from cult TV show Community and more recently as Lena Dunham’s new squeeze on Girls. While you’d think that would be enough, he was also one of the youngest writers for hit TV show 30 Rock and has also created himself a reputation based on his stand-up comedy performances.
Making his first trip down under as part of the 2013 Big Day Out, his performances were some of the most highly anticipated of the festival; his first Australian performance took place at The Standard in Sydney, and this performance set the benchmark for all shows in 2013. With his live band in tow that featured all multi-instrumentalists, they made the show even more lifting, with both guitarist also acting as violinist, drummers and keyboardists – it was an explosion of sound.
Feeling like a 13 year girl waiting for a One Direction gig to start, I was filled with an array of emotions in the minutes leading to his performance, I felt excited, full of anxiety and growing anticipation which all disappearing once he graced the stage with the opener ‘Outside’. He then followed with crowd favourites ‘Firefly’, ‘Freaks and Geeks’, ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Bonfire’. He also went on to play tracks from old and new mixtapes including his rendition of Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’ which blew everyone away!
I have never ever experienced a show that fueled so much heat, his energetic performance caused the crowd to create condensation that dripped from the ceiling, it was incredible, everyone in that room was moving with swag and lapping all that Donald provided, it was a true music experience.
If you have never heard of Childish Gambino til now, I recommend you not only try and make it to one of the remaining shows, but I recommend you get yourself a copy of his album ‘Camp’. ‘Camp’ is one album that is consistent throughout, with infectious hard hitting beats, with a mixture of funny lyrics mashed with extremely serious ones creates an album that anyone, in any mood can listen to.
Please excuse the amateur footage but this vid captures the infectious energy and vibe of what was easily one of my fave gigs I’ve been lucky enough to witness.
-Trent Rosser
